The Italian artist who sails from the Island of Elba to Saint Helena: talking about power and making a film

L’artista italiano che parte dall’Isola d’Elba in barca a vela per raggiungere Sant’Elena: si parla di potere e si gira un film

Italian artist Luca Vitone (born Genoa, 1964) has launched a project titled "Pro Tempore," which involves a two-month sailing journey from the Island of Elba—Napoleon Bonaparte's first place of exile—to the remote island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon died in exile. The voyage, aboard the boat Adriatica, includes four intermediate stops (Balearic Islands, Algeciras, Canary Islands, Cape Verde) and is funded by the 14th edition of the Italian Council grant, in partnership with the Fondazione Oelle. The project explores the concept of temporary power and uses Napoleon's biography and the sea as metaphors for control and instability.

Un ciclo di mostre è allestito sotto terra in un ipogeo del quartiere Pigneto a Roma

A family of entrepreneurs acquired an ancient bar in Rome's Pigneto neighborhood in 2020, inheriting a Roman-era hypogeum dating back to the 1st century BC. Originally a pozzolana quarry, later a wine cellar and WWII air-raid shelter, the space beneath the historic bar Necci dal 1924 reopened to the public on March 12 as an exhibition venue. It now hosts "Sottoforma," a cycle of three exhibitions curated by Donatella Giordano and Agatha Jaubourg that explore the theme of the invisible through contemporary art. The first exhibition features works by Eva Marisaldi, Enrico Serotti, and Luca Vitone, running until March 31, followed by shows with Iginio De Luca and Liliana Moro in April, and José Angelino and Elena Bellantoni in May 2026.

“We are passing the Pillars of Hercules”. The artist Luca Vitone sends us the logbook of his sailing voyage to Saint Helena

“Stiamo superando le Colonne d’Ercole”. L’artista Luca Vitone ci manda il diario di bordo del suo viaggio a vela verso Sant’Elena

Italian artist Luca Vitone has embarked on a sailing voyage from the port of La Línea, near Gibraltar, toward the island of Saint Helena, as part of his project "Pro Tempore." After six years of preparation, Vitone and his crew—including commander Pier Bruno Morelli, sound engineer Alessandro Daniele, navigator Pietro Bertozzi, cinematographer Elvio Manuzzi, and writer Carlo Antonelli—set sail on the cutter Adriatica. The journey is supported by the Italian Council program, promoted by the Ministry of Culture's Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea, and by the Fondazione Oelle in Catania, led by president Ornella Laneri.